The long-term objective is to have a complete protein sequencing laboratory that is capable of meeting the needs of a variety of projects of the investigators listed above. This institution has had a functioning protein sequencing facility from the time of its inception seven years ago. At that time, the facility was equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation. Today, all of the original equipment is still in use, but it no longer can keep pace with the users' requirements, especially in regard to the critical factor of sensitivity. Most of the sequence information needed now is on proteins that are obtainable in only a limited quantity, or for which preparative scale-ups are not feasible/practical. The current automated sequencer is a Beckman 890 series spinning cup type. Three different modifications to that instrument have failed to bring it to a level of performance satisfactory for the current and future needs of the user group. The new instrumentation requested, the latest version of the Applied Biosystems sequencer (liquid-pulse type), is intended to bring our sequencing laboratory once again to state-of-the-art performance and to meet 100% of the laboratory's sequencing needs.